Standing Rock

How the United States government exerted power by exploiting Native American Lands

In 2016, the government’s plan to reroute the Dakota Access Pipeline through the Standing Rock reservation caused controversy and protests to protect the sanctimony of native lands. The Sioux tribes that call Standing Rock home were not consulted in the decision to reroute the pipeline. The Sioux tribes, as well as many non-native peoples who protested the line’s location change, argued that the pipeline would jeopardize their main water source as well as intervene with sacred sites.. The ability of the federal government to supercede the sanctimony of Native Americans on their own reservations shows a true exertion of both power and control.

Native peoples share a deep tie to their lands, and the access and rights to their own land is crucial to their identity. By taking away or manipulating this land, the government exerts control over these Native groups and threatens to dull or erase their identity. According to Flint and Taylor, where people make and call their homes is deeply tied to their identity. Everywhere from grocery stores to houses to reservations constitute place. Where there is place, there is politics, as everyone feels compelled to fight for their rights in their own space (Flint & Taylor, 2018).

In the case of Standing Rock, the Sioux people and allies were fighting for their right to decide what happens on their own land. Inversely, the government was fighting for its right to exert its federal power in their land. In this instance, the idea of government seizing and manipulating land undoubtedly threatened the identity of  the affected peoples. According to Presley and Crane, Native People’s identity, more so than most other cultures and ethnicities, are deeply tied to the lands they occupy and have always belonged to.

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In this case, land expropriation went beyond the government seizing land. It was not only a battle of power, but a battle of sanctimony. The United States wanted to increase its oil flow, a prized resource. Inversely, the Sioux people were fighting to protect their beloved and sacred lands from uninvited intervention. The events that occurred at Standing Rock prove that land expropriation is about power just as much as it as about resources.